Pages

Monday, July 2, 2012

Burgers, Burgers, Chicken, Burgers

Now that I managed to get over this whole burger hump, theres no stopping me. My number one at the moment comes from the quite excellent Lucky Chip. Based out in Hackney, they moved from their outfit in Netil Market indoors to the pretty old school setting of the Sebright arms. Each of Lucky Chips burger creations are named after a Hollywood star. The Kelly Le Brock oozes cream cheese, the Kevin Bacon is loaded with the porky stuff and the John Belushi is heart achingly packed with foie gras, bone marrow and truffle oil. My personal favourite is the Tom Selleck, a mind boggling invention including an onion ring housing BBQ sauce, bacon and a pineapple slice.

This was without doubt the messiest burger I have ever eaten but boy did it work. Meaty, smoky and sweet, perfectly balanced, the full package. I ate this so fast I forgot there were fries to eat. Weird and slightly flaccid, it wasn't crispy as I would normally expect, but was a tasty fry nonetheless. I loved the idea of additional truffle oil drizzle available but I'm pretty sure that would have pushed me over the edge.

Lucky Chip is excellent and everyone should give their burgers a go at least once. I have since been on a few repeat visits and I don't see any signs of me stopping.

So next stop on this burger odyssey is Mother Flipper. Considering they started just 20 minutes away from my front door, I feel pretty sheepish that I hadn't visited it and the quite excellent Brockley Market earlier. Based in the car park of Lewisham college, Brockley Market opens for business every Satruday, brimming with traders selling ingredients and street food alike. Mother Flipper has been much lauded across the burger blogs, with the nature of it's double candy bacon flipper, a monstrous double patty with copious amounts of candied bacon shoved into the mix. There was only ever one thing I was going to order.

The first time I had eaten a truly exceptional London burger was my first Meatwagon experience in Peckham and in many ways still remains the best I have ever eaten. There are going to be inevitable comparisons with Mother Flipper, since they started out in SE London too, but sadly the whole experience was a little underwhelming. The burger itself was cooked well, but I found that the burger was quite underseasoned, and even with the candied bacon, and couldn't help thinking that it was a little bland. This assesment may be overly harsh as I still wolfed it down, but it was pleasant without being ground breaking.

On the other side of the parking lot was the resplendent green trailer of Spit and Roast. Chicken seems to be quite the thing at the moment, and S&R serves the bird fried and rotisseried. After the burger, I couldn't face the idea of a 2nd chicken based meal straight after, but got a box of their buttermilk fried chicken, cornbread and gravy to go.

Wow. Even a couple of hours later (having had a quick blast in a hot oven), there's no denying that this was great chicken. The batter was crisp and the mix of spice and herb was perfect. The gravy, which after some discussion on twitter was revealed to be mostly chicken dripping, was thick and more of a spread than a gravy, but beefed up the chicken flavour in each bite. It was all over too soon.

There were a tonne of other great food stalls at Brockley Market that same day, and already struggling with the burger sitting in my stomach and the chicken in my bag, I decided not to push it. Had I decided to eat myself silly, I would have been sure to visit Mike and Ollie, Fleischmob, Tongue and Cheek or the Egg Boss for one of his scotch egg inventions. Even with the abundance of street food stalls, the selection of ingredients and other items to be bought should not be overlooked. If I lived closer, I would be here every Saturday.

The final burger of this burger, burger, chicken, burger quadrat is that of Patty and Bun, Having previously popped up in Battersea, I heard a smattering of positive feedback, but not the overwhelming tidal wave that places like MEATliquor or Lucky Chip seem to be getting. I never made it out there, but was pretty pleased to hear they had moved indoors for a short time , taking up residency in the Endurance on Berwick street.

Jumping at the chance to sample yet another burger, I dragged a friend along and mainlined it straight for the Endurance the minute the clock struck six. I had my eye on the Smokey Robinson, a seemingly interesting combination of bacon, caramelised onions and the thing which drew it to me the most, a smoky P&B mayo. Now, having thought that the excellent Tom Selleck from Lucky Chip was, as well as the tastiest of late, the messiest burger I had ever eaten, you would have thought I would have been able to conduct myself with a little more dignity. Not a chance. Mouth after mouth of excellent burger left a juicy mess all over my face, all over the box it came in and a trail of soiled tissues in my wake. It's as dirty and as gratifying as all those innuendos sound.

I loved Patty and Bun, not so much their chips which were a little on the cardboardy side of done. They will be around till the end of July now I believe, but keep an eye out for them, definitely one to watch. May lay off burgers for a while now.

5 comments:

I LOVE the Lucky Chip burgers, they are my current favourite. The Daryl Hannah is the stuff of dreams, being the Maccy D's Fillet o' Fish lover that I am. Nice round up; I must get to Brockley Market again soon for some fried chicken.

You Londoners really are lucky at the selection of different burger joints you've got. I've been to a pop up in Manchester where I had the best burger I've ever tasted but I have to say the foie gras one you mention has really got my juices going!